Obama's next-door neighbor in Chicago sells house

FILE- In this Dec. 10, 2009 file photo in Chicago, The home belonging to President Barack Obama and family, left, is pictured. The 17-room house next door, right, has been sold for $1.4 million. Listing agent Matt Garrison says the deal closed Tuesday April 6, 2010, seven months after the brick house was put on the market. (AP Photo/(M. Spencer Green, File)
— AP

FILE- In this Dec. 10, 2009 file photo in Chicago, The home belonging to President Barack Obama and family, left, is pictured. The 17-room house next door, right, has been sold for $1.4 million. Listing agent Matt Garrison says the deal closed Tuesday April 6, 2010, seven months after the brick house was put on the market. (AP Photo/(M. Spencer Green, File)
/ AP

CHICAGO 
When President Barack Obama and his family return to Chicago they will have new next-door neighbors to get to know.

The 17-room house next to the Obamas in a ritzy South Side neighborhood has sold for $1.4 million after seven months on the market, said listing agent Matt Garrison.

The previous owners, the Grimshaw family, bought the 6,000-square-foot home in 1973 for $35,000. They originally listed the home without a price tag to see what the Obama-factor might bring, but eventually ended up asking $1.85 million. The market for homes in Chicago priced above $1 million has been "soft" for about three years, according to Garrison's office.

The new owners, who want to remain anonymous, are from Chicago and plan to live in the house after a "massive" renovation of the eight-bedroom home, Garrison said.

Tuesday's sale was not yet recorded on the Cook County Recorder of Deeds Web site. Within a half-mile radius of the property, 10 other homes that were already renovated have sold for more than $1 million in the past year, Garrison's office said.

Unlike others who expressed interest in buying the home, the new owners weren't drawn to it because of the chance to live next to a president. It simply was the best and nicest house they found, Garrison said.

The new owners "would have preferred if it was a couple houses down from them," he said, referring to the Obamas.

Living near the Obamas comes with its share of hassles. The Secret Service keeps tabs on every person who enters the street and security increases exponentially whenever Obama is in town, although he and his family have spent little time in Chicago since moving to the White House.

They were at the house for a long weekend in February 2009 and Obama came by his house last summer when he was in town on a fundraising trip.

"When he's here, the street turns into a madhouse. There are like 30 to 40 guys. Cars all over the place. Red alert kind of circumstances. Everybody is tense. Everybody's head is on a swivel," former homeowner Bill Grimshaw has said.

The Secret Service is aware of the Obamas' new neighbors and have been in touch with them, Garrison said.